UCLA Sociology Chairs

1948: UCLA Department of Sociology established joint with Anthropology.

1948-1952:  Harry Hoijer, anthropologist and linguist known for his work on Athabaskan languages and culture.

1952-1953: Leonard Broom, sociologist whose early research focused on theinternment of Japanese Americans during WWII and co-authored one of the most successful early sociology textbooks.

1953-1954: Harry Hoijer (see above)

1954-1958: Leonard Broom (see above)

1958-1962: Donald Cressey, sociologist who made innovative contributions to the study of organized crime and criminology more broadly.

1964-65: Department of Sociology becomes its own department.

1962-1966: Clement Meighan, archaeologist recognized for his work on the prehistory of Southern California and Baja Mexico.

1966-1968: Ralph Turner, social psychologist known for pioneering work on role theory.

1968-1970: Richard T. Morris, sociologist who produced important scholarship on social stratification and urban race relations.

1970-1972: Georges Sabagh, sociologist known for his work on ethnic enclaves and population studies.

1972-1977: Oscar Grusky, sociologist whose work focuses on the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

1977-1978: Donald Treiman, sociologist whose work focuses on social stratification and social mobility, particularly from a cross-national perspective, and more recently on internal migration in China.

1978-1981: Melvin Seeman, social psychologist who studied alienation and anomie. 

1981-1983: Emanuel A. Schegloff, sociologist credited with being one of the co-creators of the field of conversation analysis.

1983-1987: Philip Bonacich, sociologist who specializes in quantitative methods.

1987-1989: Howard Freeman, medical sociologist who was also the founding director of UCLA’s Institute for Social Science Research.

1989-1992: Jeffrey Alexander, cultural sociologist known for his work in theareas of theory and politics.

1992-1995: Ivan Szelenyi, sociologist whose work focuses on inequality in urban communities and the structural problems of capitalistic and socialistic societies.

1995-1999: Robert Emerson, qualitative sociologist known for his work on personal, interactional or social troubles, particularly on how they arise and how people react to them.

1999-2005: Roger Waldinger, sociologist recognized for his work on the political and economic consequences of international migration.

2005-2008: David Lopez, sociologist who specializes in immigration and ethnicity and Latin American Studies.

2008-2012: William Roy, sociologist whose work focuses on the history of commercial popular music in the 20th century, particularly on how musical genres work as social categories.

2012-2015: Stefan Timmermans, sociologist known for his ethnographic studies of the body, death and dying.

2015- 2017: Darnell Hunt, sociologist whose work focuses on media, race and popular culture.

2017- 2020: Megan Sweeney, sociologist whose research centers on the nature, determinants, and consequences of trends and differentials in family patterns.